In my largest suburb thread, I briefly mentioned about the East Valley of the Phoenix metro area seceding from Maricopa County and forming their own county. This has been proposed a few times by former state Senator Russell Pearce. The base proposals included the cities and towns of Mesa (which would have been the county seat), Chandler, Gilbert, and Queen Creek. Some expanded proposals also included the City of Tempe, and I think one even included Scottsdale.

I'd assume Tempe would not want to join since they would be the only liberal city in an otherwise conservative dominated county, putting them at a disadvantage. Also, I don't think East Valley residents would support the idea either because they wouldn't want to lose Sherriff Joe Arpaio.

Two of the proposed names for the county included either Red Mountain County or Rio Salado County.

So, I would like to know, does anyone have any examples of some past failed county secession proposals in your state?

Cook County has had a variety of failed secession attempts over the years.

from wikipedia:

Quote:

To establish more localized government control and policies which reflect the often different values and needs of large suburban sections of the sprawling county, several secession movements have been made over the years which called for certain townships or municipalities to form their own independent counties.

In the late 1970s, a movement started which proposed a separation of six northwest suburban townships, Cook County's panhandle (Barrington, Hanover, Palatine, Wheeling, Schaumburg, and Elk Grove) from Cook to form Lincoln County, in honor of the former U.S. president and Illinois resident.[14] It is likely that Arlington Heights would have been the county seat. This northwest suburban region of Cook is moderately conservative and has a population over 500,000. Local legislators, led by State Senator Dave Regnar, went so far as to propose it as official legislation in the Illinois House. The legislation died, however, before coming to a vote.

In 2004, Blue Island Mayor Donald E. Peloquin organized a coalition of fifty-five south and southwest suburban municipalities to form a new county, also proposing the name Lincoln County. The county would include everything south of Burbank, stretching as far west as Orland Park, as far east as Calumet City, and as far south as Matteson, covering an expansive area with a population of over one million residents. Peloquin argued that the south suburbs are often shunned by the city (although Chicago is not bound or required to do anything for other municipalities) and he blamed the Chicago-centric policies of Cook County for failing to jumpstart the somewhat-depressed south suburban local economy. Pending sufficient interest from local communities, Peloquin planned a petition drive to place a question regarding the secession on the general election ballot, but the idea was not met with success.[15]

Talk of secession from Cook County amongst some outlying communities again heated up in mid-2008 in response to a highly controversial 1% sales tax hike which has pushed the tax rates across the county communities up amongst the highest in the nation. Some border towns in particular had been outraged, as people can take their business across the county border (paying, for instance, 7% in Lake County instead of Palatine's 9.5%).[16] The secession issue eventually died down from the nominal tax increase.

In 2011, two downstate Republican state representatives, Bill Mitchell of the 87th district and Adam Brown of the 101st district, proposed statehood for Cook County. Mitchell said that Chicago is "dictating its views" to the rest of the state and Brown added that Chicago "overshadows" the rest of Illinois.[17]

In 2011, two downstate Republican state representatives, Bill Mitchell of the 87th district and Adam Brown of the 101st district, proposed statehood for Cook County. Mitchell said that Chicago is "dictating its views" to the rest of the state and Brown added that Chicago "overshadows" the rest of Illinois.[17]

^ What? I never knew about this. Too bad that never went anywhere, I would love for a good chunk of metro Chicago to be its own State

King County, WA, is a little over 2,000,000 people, from Seattle etc. on the edge of Puget Sound to the peaks of the Cascade mountains. This means a lot of rural and wilderness land is included in the eastern 3/4, particularly in the south half of the county that's lower income. King County has been relatively progressive in in terms of growth management, well beyond other urban counties in the state. It's also socially liberal, including re-designating its namesake from a bad-guy King to MLK a decade ago, with his image being the new logo. Plenty of right wing attempts at both turning back progressive stuff and forming their own county on the east.

Mission County in California, as mentioned in the Wikipedia article, would have split from Santa Barbara County, with the northern have of the original county taking the new name. Went all the way to a vote which didn't pass in 2006.

My city's secession wasn't unsuccessful- St. Louis is an independent city! The Great Divorce of 1876 seemed like a great idea at the time, but ultimately has proved to be disastrous and incredibly short-sighted.

Locals in the area I'm mentioning have talked about southern New Castle County (south of the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal) becoming its own county, although there has been no formal proposal legislatively. The thinking of the people with this idea down there, mentioned usually in frustration, is that the northern part of the county, north of the canal but especially north of Route 40, is the focus of the county. The county seat would likely be Middletown, which is quickly moving up the list of Delaware's most populated municipalities. Middletown is already the economic hub of southern New Castle County, and parts of northern Kent County.

Going back to Arizona, there has been proposals in the past for Lake Havasu City to secede from Mohave County. The city is largely isolated from the rest of the county, being far south of the county's other population core in the Kingman and Bullhead City area.